Quote: When Victory was launched I thought why build only big air cooled V-Twin cruisers that are obviously aimed at the Harley Davidson market. Why not offer a modern sport or adventure bike? When John Bloor relaunched the new Triumph he did it with sport bikes not the classic air cooled parallel twins, they came later by popular demand. But like the press statement from Polaris said Victory has failed to gain enough market share remaining in the 2 to 3 percent range. They went straight at the monster and didn't make a dent because it was obvious they were trying to copy/follow the leader. Basic hit them where they ain't tactics might have served Victory better. Look, If Harley Davidson built an exact copy of a Honda 1000RR sport bike enthusiasts still wouldn't buy it because of the Harley Davidson brand name...and when Honda builds a lame copy of a V-twin Harley cruiser well Harley riders ain't interested in rice. This was the gap Victory could have filled but when the strategy failed Polaris bought some heritage cred with the Indian name.
You make some good points here, OB. But remember, H-D did for a while offer a sport bike line, the one bearing the Buell name, but because the H-D crowd are almost exclusively cruiser riders, that joint venture failed. And so it wasn't just the sport bike crowd who failed to support that venture.
The advantage that the Triumph concern has over pretty much all other motorcycle manufacturers is that it not only covers a wide and varied spectrum of motorcycle styles geared for street riding, but that in general it has succeeded in selling all these different styles to the public, such as the market successful modern "Naked" Speed and Street Triples, the 675 Daytona sport bike, the "Adventure" line Tigers, the VERY successful "Retro" Bonneville line and to some degree even the "Cruiser" line.
And while of course their total sales figures don't come even close to those of H-D's, I believe what this shows about Triumph and especially about their customers and customer base, is that they in general can not be "pigeon-holed" into thinking of the brand in only one specific way.
And I don't think you can say this about any other motorcycle brand to any great degree. And, because Victory's origins seemed to be solely based upon the thought of taking a percentage of H-D's cruiser crowd away from the The Motor Company's potential cruiser customer base and not the thought of a more varied lineup, I believe this doomed this effort from the get-go.
All very true, but to be honest a Buell with a 90 horsepower pushrod Sportster engine in a sport bike chassis just doesn't impress the Honda rider with a 160 horsepower 12,000 RPM race motor. Well not enough for him to consider making the switch and that's the customer Buell was apparently trying to win. It certainly wasn't us knuckle dragger cruiser geezers. And the dealer's didn't know what to do with Buells except deep discount them off the floor.
Triumph has done great diversifing their line and is truly competitive in every segment of the market. But somehow I think the cruisers are a bit neglected and Thunderbird especially needs to be updated.
Last edited by outerbanks; 01/17/201712:19 AM.
2011 Triumph America (10/2011 to 07/2014)
2012 Harley Davidson 1200C Sportster
2014 Harley Davidson Dyna Wide Glide
